During construction that involves excavation, it is prudent to determine the actual location of buried pipes, cables, gas lines, AC electric lines, sprinkler wires, CATV cable, communications wiring, and so forth. This is usually done with a portable hand-held locator that senses electromagnetic signals emitted by such buried objects. This is because maps of such buried objects, if they are available at all, are often not complete and/or accurate. Where buried utilities carry an electric signal, such as power lines, often no additional signal need be applied to perform the location. But many pipes and other conduits have no electromagnetic emission that is readily detectable. While a metal water pipe or gas pipe may, for example, re-radiate surrounding electromagnetic signals, the re-radiated signals are weak, and spread over many different frequencies. This makes the location of such buried utilities with a conventional hand-held locator very difficult. The solution is to apply an external signal from an electronic transmitter usually tuned to a specific frequency optimized for the particular application. However, many buried utilities and other objects are shielded with insulation or other dielectric coating. Therefore, inductive clamps are used to induce a signal at a predetermined desired frequency without making any direct electrical connection to the metal conductor in the buried utility or other buried object.